But they lacked the same reconnaissance capabilities here. Oh, they had tried to send out patrols, but like the ill-fated one he had led a few weeks back, Ragnarok had been prepared with defenses of their own. The only real progress they could make was either through the tunnels, or from elevated positions like this tower.
And that lack of a clear picture disturbed him. Danny felt like they were about to get cold-cocked by their enemy, caught off guard with little time to respond. That thought unsettled him greatly.
“I wonder why they’re not using their elites here as well,” Danny said. That would be the one thing that would make this situation even worse. He knew Ymir was in the forests, but the Valkyries or Fenris could show up at any time, and the last thing they needed was a confrontation with some of Ragnarok’s best commando units.
“Are you talking about the Valkyries, or the Wraith?” Miko asked him.
Danny thought about that for a moment. “Both, I guess. He’s part of the Valkyries too, so if he’s here I’d imagine they’d be as well.”
There was a pause at the other end of the line. “I don’t know about the Valkyries,” Miko said, “but I know he’s here somewhere. I can feel it.”
That statement unsettled him even more. “You’re sure of that?”
“I haven’t seen him at all, or even come across any of his work yet, but I know he’s here. It’s the sniper’s sixth sense, if you follow.”
“I do.” Veterans frequently relied on their instincts, and he was no different.
But if the Wraith was in the area like Miko suspected, then that changed the situation immensely. Danny had fallen victim to him once in the early days of the game, but it wasn’t the fear of dying again that concerned him. No, it was the fear of the Wraith himself.
He had an aura about him, a mystique that could intimidate anyone with just the mere hint that he was active in an area. That was the kind of reputation that preceded someone like him, possibly the best sniper in the Old Chicago region. Only the best of the best in Hydra could even come close to matching him. Miko, maybe, but Danny was hard pressed to think of any others.
“Do you think he’s watching now?”
“Who knows,” Miko said. “We certainly wouldn’t if he was.”
Maybe, Danny thought, but he was going to remain cautious. Otherwise, there might be a bullet lodged in his skull very soon.
13
BULLPUP
Nora watched the trees whiz by outside the train car window, trying to amuse herself while she waited to reach Indianapolis. That was one downside to having a huge, sprawling open world. They could go anywhere and explore anything, but transit times remained a hassle. They had access to transport planes, but Nora didn’t think they were worth the effort. She’d have to come south of Old Chicago to catch one anyhow, since Hydra didn’t have a proper airstrip in the north. Milwaukee had an airport, but that was in another NPC controlled district.
At least the train was relatively fast and she could sit back and relax for a bit. Nora remembered the days where she had to take an ATV, a time consuming process that required all of her attention. She could also catch a ride on the highway in a Mule, but the tracked vehicle moved even slower.
And at least those two were better than walking, because Nora knew how long it had taken them to traverse even a few miles in the days before the alliance.
It was an odd feeling, Nora thought to herself. This train was once the pinnacle of their alliance’s technological prowess, a system designed almost completely from scratch using the game’s free crafting elements. Hephaestus Company had outdone themselves with this, inventing a locomotive that could use wood, a plentiful resource, for propulsion. Nora didn’t know the specifics, but she did know the process had taken them many hours and a significant amount of trial and error.
But now their technological marvel seemed completely mundane, when before it had been amazing, almost magical in nature. Maybe that was just a result of them adapting to the changes and then taking them for granted. After all, in the real world she took having electricity and running water for granted, but they were really technological marvels in their own right.
Nora turned back to look over at Karen, who was leaning back in her seat. “So, another toy for us, and this time we get nominated to check it out.”
“I hope it’s important,” Karen replied. “I had to call in a special extraction to get back to our side of the lines.”
“How is that going? The raiding, I mean?”
“Pretty well, although there’s not much to it. We do recon work and then target resource gathering missions and convoys heading to the front lines. Simple stuff.”
“I’d imagine that Ragnarok’s not taking that lying down,” Nora said.
Karen shrugged. “They’re trying their best to stop us, of course, but it’s not that easy for them. We really don’t have a fixed base, so they can’t really hunt us down. We try to stay unpredictable, and it’s not like Ragnarok has many troops to spare right now. We haven’t encountered any of the elite units.”
“I’m surprised they haven’t sent them,” Nora commented. “I know they’re needed at the front lines, but having their supply lines affected really hurts them.”
“I’d prefer if they didn’t come after us, but if they do I can’t really complain about it either. Makes your job much simpler, at least,” Karen smiled.
“We’re in a pretty good position right now.”
“How’s Bravo 3 doing?” Karen asked, inquiring about her old squad.
“Solid as always. Ryan’s stepped up fine and is leading them well.”
“Good. I wouldn’t expect anything else from them. So they’ve put you back into the Milwaukee fight.”
“Yeah, they had us take one of the towers inside the district. Taking it was not an easy fight, mind you.”
“I wouldn’t expect it would be,” Karen nodded. “But now they have you holding the tower? That’s unusual.”
“Maybe, but I can see why. It’s an important strategic position. You can literally see the entire district from the top, and that’s pretty useful for spotting artillery.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t defend it better, then.”
“Yeah,” Nora frowned. “They only had a platoon dug in when we attacked, and we still lost over half the company. There’s just no way up that place without coming under withering fire. And it’s even worse now. Hephaestus fortified the tower and added artillery. We can take out tanks and infantry at pretty long range.”
“I hope for your sake they don’t just try to blast it.”
“They can’t. The tower’s too solid,” Nora replied. “Or at least that’s what Paige tells me. I’m inclined to believe her.”
“I hope for your sake she’s right, though I’d be inclined to believe her too. She hasn’t steered us wrong yet.”
No, Nora thought to herself, and that was one of the strong points of the alliance. No matter how different they all might be, no matter how much their opinions might differ, the fact remained that Hydra was full of competent people who were very good at their duties. When the chips were down they could be relied upon, and that gave the others supreme confidence.
“Any idea what we’re here for?”
“What, they didn’t tell you?”
Karen shook her head. “I just got a message saying that Yusuf had requested I come down to Indianapolis with you and left it at that. Other than the time there were no other details.”
“Well, I didn’t get a lot more than that, but they did tell me they’re going to be showing off some weaponry that might interest us,” Nora told her. “I don’t know what kind of weaponry that might be, though. They didn’t tell me.”
“I’m guessing for security reasons?”
“That’s my thought as well.”
Both Hydra and Ragnarok liked to keep their trump cards secret until they could properly deploy them, usually to the utter surprise of the enemy. Chatter and hearsay could
make its way back to the other side of the lines, completely wrecking that advantage. Hydra had tried to keep those kind of leaks under control by limited the spread of knowledge. Only a select few would ever know about a project until it was time to deploy it, and that was generally restricted to people who could keep their mouths shut.
But that always left an element of mystery when the time to finally test the equipment came around. Nora found herself wondering just what Hephaestus Company had in store for them. A new type of vehicle? Artillery? Something more mundane?
Only time would tell, she thought as she looked back out the train window.
* * *
“Glad you guys could make it,” Paige said as they stepped off their ride in Central City.
“We really need to find a faster way to get here,” Nora commented. First they had taken the train from Lerna Bastion to Indianapolis, and then they had taken a separate line to the center of the city.
“We’ll put that on the list, right after the million other things before it,” Yusuf said.
“That busy still?”
“When are we ever not busy?”
“Be fair, at least you don’t have people rampaging behind enemy lines blowing up all your stuff,” Karen said.
“Oh man, that would be terrible,” he replied, shaking his head. “We’re already having enough of a time getting everything we need to the front lines.”
“Are you too strained?” Nora asked him.
Yusuf motioned for them to follow, and the other three fell in step with him.
“It isn’t too bad, to be honest. The biggest thing right now is just producing enough to replace losses and attrition, plus making extra to sell in the Old Chicago markets. We need the credits, after all.”
Hydra had significant industrial capability here, but some important components could only be obtained within the city. And to acquire the huge amounts of material they needed, they needed an equally huge amount of credits.
“What’s selling? Is it still mostly ammo?”
“That and small arms like assault rifles, though that’s decreasing a bit. We can undercut the NPC shops because we can mass produce them, but we’re also sending huge amounts to the front lines. And that’s cutting into our supply.”
“All the fighting you’re doing certainly isn’t helping things,” Paige said. “Plus we have to take the time to build new weapons and equipment, which means the production lines are occupied.”
Nora nodded. The logistical side of things was often ignored by the smaller companies, but major alliances focused huge amounts of time and effort on it because of its vital nature. It didn’t matter how good a fighting force might be, without ammunition and replacements parts for their weapons attrition would cut them down to size very quickly.
“Well, we appreciate your effort,” she said. “Ragnarok’s being very wary, and I think it’s because they know how hard it will be to take the tower back.”
“We’re pretty pleased too,” Karen added. “The Typhoons are really useful. Honestly, I don’t think we’d be able to do deep penetration raids without them ferrying supplies to us.”
“Products of the vaults of the Central City library,” Paige said. “There’s a lot of good stuff in there, but most of it can’t be built yet. And there’s a ton of schematics for mods and stuff, but most of it looks cosmetic.”
“Cosmetic how?” Nora asked curiously.
“Different stocks and grips, different materials, stuff like that. It mostly changes the looks of the guns.”
“If it’s all the same, I’d like to look into them a bit more,” Nora said. “They might seem minor, but they could change the way we use our weapons.”
It might not have mattered in a regular video game, but in a virtual world one even small changes could have dramatic effects. A more ergonomic grip, for example, would make shooting more comfortable, a change in materials could lead to a reduction in weight, and so on and so forth. And if it gave them an edge, any sort of edge, Nora wanted it. They’d need every advantage against a tough foe.
“We can do that, but you might want to see what we have in store for you first,” Yusuf said. “It might change your mind a little, or at least give you something to think about.”
“That sounds so mysterious,” Karen said.
“I know, doesn’t it? But I think you’re going to like it.”
Yusuf and Paige led them to a building, a long metal warehouse that looked barely occupied. They opened the doors and ushered them inside. As Yusuf shut the door, Paige flipped on the overhead lights.
“Shooting range?” Nora said as the room lit up.
“That would be correct.”
It could be nothing else, she thought as she looked around. Targets sat at the far end of the structure, backed by huge amounts of padding to prevent ricochets from live ammunition. The walls were padded as well. A few tables sat at their end, probably to provide shooting rests.
But one of the tables in particular caught her attention. Most of the others were bare, but this one was spread with weapons that she wasn’t familiar with.
And as she suspected, that was what they were here for. Yusuf walked over to the table, picked on up and turned around to show them.
“This is what we called you here for,” he said.
“Another small arm?” Karen asked.
“A bullpup assault rifle, to be precise,” Paige said as she joined them.
Yusuf handed one to each of them. “Here, take a look and get a feel for them.”
Nora turned the weapon in her hands, trying to get a good measure of its characteristics. It was much more compact than a regular assault rifle, and even carbines. The trigger and grip sat about a third of the way down the length of the gun, while the magazine went into the stock about two thirds of the way back. Like all standard weapons, the assault rifle was made out of strong plastics and metal.
“This is a heck of a lot more compact than the assault rifles we’ve had to carry,” Karen said, hefting her own gun. “Is the barrel as long as a regular assault rifle?”
“Slightly shorter, but it’s not going to make that much of a difference,” Yusuf said. “But it is much longer than a regular carbine barrel, and that’s going to give you much greater accuracy in a smaller package.”
“So, want to test them out?” Paige asked.
“Do you even have to ask?”
Yusuf handed out magazines to both of them. It took Nora a minute to figure out how to load the weapon, mostly because of its different configuration. She was used to having the magazine well in front of her hand, while with this weapon the magazine well sat closer to her elbow.
And then after she figured that out, she ran into another problem.
“Um, how are you supposed to grip this?” she asked.
Paige looked over at her. “You’re a right-handed shooter, right?”
“Yes.”
“Right hand on the grip and trigger, left on then handguard. There you go.”
Nora adjusted her hold on the weapon. “This feels really weird.”
“A lot different from your run of the mill carbine or assault rifle, right? It took us a while to figure out how to use them too, so don’t worry about it. You’ll adapt.”
Nora nodded and took up a position behind one of the tables, facing one of the targets at the far end of the shooting range. She took a breath, then cocked the charging handle, flipped the selector switch to semi-auto, aimed down the sights and fired.
Bang!
“Looks like your first shot was off a little bit to the upper right,” Yusuf said, looking through a scope set up on another table.
Nora fired again.
“Still off a little.”
“The grip on this just feels weird,” she said.
“It’s a part of the design,” Paige told her. “There were two configurations for it, actually. The first one had the trigger about halfway back to the gun, which made it easier for people who used standard
rifles to adapt.”
“I assume there’s a reason you picked this design then?” Karen asked.
Yusuf nodded. “It has to do with firing it on full-auto. Specifically, the muzzle climb.”
“What does that have to do with the position of the grip and trigger?”
“Bullpups have a tendency to have more muzzle climb than traditional guns because they aren’t balanced. Most of the weight is in the back,” Paige explained. “But having both hands near the front of the gun helps counteract that, which helps with control when you’re firing on full-auto.”
Karen flicked her selector switch and fired off a long automatic burst. Nora watched, noting that the gun stayed relatively stable the entire time. There was still some muzzle climb, though nothing too severe.
“Feels a little weird at first, but once you get used to it the gun’s actually pretty comfortable to shoot,” Karen commented as she put her gun back on safe. “Now it’s just a matter of making sure we can aim it correctly.”
Nora brought her own gun back up and fired a shot, then another.
“You’re getting close,” Yusuf told her.
“It’s going to take a little while to get used to this thing,” she replied.
Nora wasn’t a terrible shot by any means, but having to deal with a new weapon meant her marksmanship ability fell drastically. Part of the problem was the sights. She was used to having a red dot scope on her weapon that fired three round bursts, but this one only had iron sights. The gun did have rails, so mounting optics would be a piece of cake, but she didn’t have any on hand right now.
And the balance of the weapon threw her off as well. Like Paige had said, most of the weight was concentrated in the rear of the gun, while Nora was used to having it evenly distributed throughout the weapon. That made adapting on the fly fairly difficult, though given time Nora was sure she’d get used to it. She fired off the last of her ammo in an automatic burst and put the gun on safe.
Carnage City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 6) Page 13
